Expand Your Palate

A new video-format magazine from Melbourne is offering something different.

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Priya Cox, Dylan and Olive Wiehahn.

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Published on 10 September 2014

by Georgia Booth

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Palate can be defined as “a person's ability to distinguish between and appreciate different flavours”. It’s a fitting name, then, for a new online video magazine from Melbourne. What partners Dylan Wiehahn and stylist Priya Cox are asking is that you open yourself up to something a little different. “We want to give the magazine experience; something that has the same appeal and format [as a magazine] but with videos instead of text,” explains Wiehahn.

Although not a new concept, Wiehahn and Cox haven’t seen anything quite the same as what they are offering. The aim is to keep the content broad and not pigeonhole themselves (even though their main interest is food). “The central element of Palate is a certain style, a style we find ourselves attracted to. Kinfolk is probably our biggest inspiration … it’s an eclectic mix of content but it seems to be the style that holds it together,” says Wiehahn.

Wiehahn is the filmmaker and technician and Priya is the stylist, but they make most creative decisions together. One of the videos in their first issue, New Beginnings, is a minute-long video of the making of a sprout sandwich, called Open Sprout Sandwich. Stop-motion shots of the sandwich being put together are interspersed with time-lapse shots of the sprouts growing; they appear to be swaying in time with the slow, funk jam that’s playing.

Another is an interview with Madelaine, a passionate 19-year-old farmer. The shots are high definition, gorgeously coloured and linger on scenes of chickens roaming the grass at dawn and of chocolate cake being made in the farm kitchen. These lasting shots show appreciation for the scene. Watching them, you start to write the description in your head, focusing on the details Wiehahn picks out for you. “We wanted to create a whole collection of videos quite freely, without a lot of restrictions. It’s going to be a bit of a new concept for people, I think,” Wiehahn says.